WORDS AND IMAGES : Back to Books : With the political season over, attention can be turned again to literary affairs.

The political word- and image-makers have retreated for a while, leaving the winners to crow and the losers to eat crow. Now we can concentrate on literary word- and image-makers who keep things lively in this fair county.

Just 20 years ago women journalists were generally confined to covering “soft” news such as society events, warm fuzzy features about lost puppies, fashion and food. When I first started writing about politics, I confess, I used initials to obfuscate my identity. Editors preferred it that way.

We’ve come a long way, of course, but women have been battered in a centuries-old struggle to establish themselves in all areas of writing, particularly as dramatists.

Ciji Ware, award-winning KABC Talk Radio personality, explores the world of 18th-Century female playwrights in her second novel, “Wicked Company” (Bantam), which she will discuss at the Ventura County Writers Club. Ware is a graduate of Harvard with a degree in history and is the first woman president of the Southern California Harvard-Radcliffe Club. She has won an Emmy, a Dupont Award and a Silver Gavel from the American Bar Assn. for her work as a journalist and broadcaster.

Ware is on the air mornings at KABC, and spends afternoons researching a new novel in the Huntington Library. She is also the author of “Sharing Parenthood After Divorce” and a historical novel, “Island of the Swans,” which sold 250,000 copies. The Ventura Writers will meet at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday in the Pleasant Valley Church, 1101 Ponderosa (at Lantana) in Camarillo. There is a $4 fee to non-members. Call 495-8730.

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The fall book sale sponsored by The Friends of the Santa Paula Blanchard Community Library is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot at the library, 119 North 8th St. Thousands of books donated by private and public libraries will be sorted into 25 categories, making it easy to locate special subjects and titles. Magazines and records will also be on sale. Among the approximately 30 literary items to be auctioned at 10 a.m. is James Thurber’s “Further Fables for Our Time,” illustrated by the author. Proceeds from the sale will be used to purchase special books for the library and a copy machine for patrons. Call library director Dan Robles at 525-1365.

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The Ojai Film Society will screen “Carmen” in the Ojai Playhouse, 145 E. Ojai Ave., at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. This flamenco version of the Bizet opera made in Spain in 1983 is a must for dance buffs. Call 646-8946 for details on the screening schedule.

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Thinking about writing a romance novel? Craig Broude, who writes as Melissa Hepburn and Lisa Lenore, is teaching a one-day workshop at 9 a.m. Saturday on “Writing The Romance Novel and Getting it Published” for UC Santa Barbara at a Thousand Oaks location . . . Author/publisher John Daniel will conduct a short-story writing class from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Nov. 14 at UCSB Ventura Center, 3585 Maple St. Call 893-3351 for details on both classes.